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01-15-06, 09:58 PM
Canton Health Dept. Orders Woman To Stop Feeding Stray Cat
http://www.cantonrep.com/new/index.php?ID=263539&Category=9&fromSearch=yes
Woman ordered to stop feeding stray cats
Saturday, January 14, 2006
By ED BALINT REPOSITORY STAFF WRITER
http://www.cantonrep.com/new/index.php?ID=263539&Category=9&fromSearch=yes
http://www.starkhealth.org
Canton Ohio Health Dept Threatens Woman With Arrest For Feeding Stray
Jesus, Buddha, and Isaiah say to feed the hungry while the Canton
Health Dept. threatens people with arrest for this action.
http://www.cantonrep.com/new/index.p...fromSearch=yes
Saturday, January 14, 2006
By ED BALINT REPOSITORY STAFF WRITER
Please give feedback on this story to
http://starkhealth.org/contactus.htm
Health Dept Director: Wm J Franks
franksb@starkhealth.org
CANTON Margaret Hughes first noticed a gray cat in her 10th Street NW
neighborhood about two years ago.
Tugging at her heartstrings, the feline cried for attention and begged
for something to eat.
Unable to resist, Hughes set a food bowl outside her house. A pillow
and blanket were tucked into a wicker basket for a bed. She named the
cat Ghost, and limited the animal to the outdoors since she had an
indoor cat.
Another cat entered the picture later. She fed that one, too, once in
the morning and once in the late afternoon.
"I was just trying to save the cats from starving to death," Hughes said.
Then the 69-year-old got a notice from the Canton Health Department on
Jan. 6 ordering her to stop feeding the cats and to remove the bed. If
she doesn't comply by Monday, Hughes would be expected to show up for
a hearing, and could face up to a $100 fine and 90 days in jail, said
Law Director Joseph Martuccio. But, he added, he does not recall the
board of health ever levying such punishment in a stray cat case.
"They always seek voluntary cooperation," Martuccio said.
Hughes, meanwhile, sees little harm in feeding the cats, saying she's
"trying to do something humane."
"I felt bad for the cats because they're on a porch meowing," she
said. "They're hungry, and I fed them."
Still, Hughes said, she's complying with the order, removing the food
bowl and bed.
The Health Department says nobody should feed stray cats. Jack Wade,
staff sanitarian, said he understands that Hughes and others think
they're doing a good deed by feeding wandering cats.
Canton Health Commissioner Robert Pattison agrees. "Everybody wants to
help animals, but if you really want to help them, you want to give
(them) a real home."
(Jackie Godbey of the Humane Society in the following quote sounds more
like a dogcatcher than a humane society official)
Food dishes can attract raccoons, skunks and rats, he said. Food left
for cats also can lead to a colony of the four-legged creatures, said
Jackie Godbey, assistant director of the Stark County Humane Society.
Stray cats also may sit underneath cars or on top of vehicles. And
cats can spread respiratory disease, lice, fleas and worms to other
animals, Godbey said.
In the case of Hughes, Wade said he discovered the stray cats while
responding to a complaint about garbage and tires stored on another
property. That's when Wade said he noticed the cats, noting that the
department had received complaints about stray cats in the 10th Street
NW area.
Since Hughes said she "couldn't catch (the two stray cats) if I wanted
to," the only option is to remove the food bowl and bed and let them
fend for themselves.
The city and county health departments do not pick up strays. Neither
does the Stark County dog warden's office, which refers inquiries
about stray cats to the Stark County Humane Society.
The Humane Society accepts cats and puts them up for adoption, Godbey
said.
"They are the most important resource we have for cats," Wade said of
the agency.
People who have strays or want to get rid of a cat should not dump
them in rural parts of the county, Godbey said.
"They'll see a barn, a farm and they'll take (cats there), and they
don't think that 800 people have done that (in the same area) over the
years," she said.
Reach Repository writer Ed Balint at (330) 580-8315 or e-mail:
ed.balint@cantonrep.com
(As the Health Dept. violates the 1st amendment in
harrassment of Good Samaritans, it neglects investigation of
national chain and local restaurant incidents of food poisoning,
ecoli sickness, anaphylactic shock from old fish,
faulty freezers, porcine spongiform encephalopathy, avian spongiform
encephalopathy, cervine spongiform encephalopathy (Mad Pig, Mad Bird
Mad Deer etc.)
108 of Ohio's animal abusers
http://www.postpoems.com/cgi-bin/displaypoem.cgi?pid=209716
Quote:
the local health depts. in Ohio and the country
have killed trillions of rats
... have given cancer to untold tens of thousands with
their forced insecticide sprays
and their malathion and DDT etc.
they've given orders to bulldoze $100,000 brick homes (in league
with landlords who want rents high)
the directors are often unelected
they have ordered people to mow down wild lawns etc despite the
EPA's encouragement of wild lawns
http://www.epa.gov/greenacres
http://www.cantonrep.com/new/index.php?ID=263539&Category=9&fromSearch=yes
Woman ordered to stop feeding stray cats
Saturday, January 14, 2006
By ED BALINT REPOSITORY STAFF WRITER
http://www.cantonrep.com/new/index.php?ID=263539&Category=9&fromSearch=yes
http://www.starkhealth.org
Canton Ohio Health Dept Threatens Woman With Arrest For Feeding Stray
Jesus, Buddha, and Isaiah say to feed the hungry while the Canton
Health Dept. threatens people with arrest for this action.
http://www.cantonrep.com/new/index.p...fromSearch=yes
Saturday, January 14, 2006
By ED BALINT REPOSITORY STAFF WRITER
Please give feedback on this story to
http://starkhealth.org/contactus.htm
Health Dept Director: Wm J Franks
franksb@starkhealth.org
CANTON Margaret Hughes first noticed a gray cat in her 10th Street NW
neighborhood about two years ago.
Tugging at her heartstrings, the feline cried for attention and begged
for something to eat.
Unable to resist, Hughes set a food bowl outside her house. A pillow
and blanket were tucked into a wicker basket for a bed. She named the
cat Ghost, and limited the animal to the outdoors since she had an
indoor cat.
Another cat entered the picture later. She fed that one, too, once in
the morning and once in the late afternoon.
"I was just trying to save the cats from starving to death," Hughes said.
Then the 69-year-old got a notice from the Canton Health Department on
Jan. 6 ordering her to stop feeding the cats and to remove the bed. If
she doesn't comply by Monday, Hughes would be expected to show up for
a hearing, and could face up to a $100 fine and 90 days in jail, said
Law Director Joseph Martuccio. But, he added, he does not recall the
board of health ever levying such punishment in a stray cat case.
"They always seek voluntary cooperation," Martuccio said.
Hughes, meanwhile, sees little harm in feeding the cats, saying she's
"trying to do something humane."
"I felt bad for the cats because they're on a porch meowing," she
said. "They're hungry, and I fed them."
Still, Hughes said, she's complying with the order, removing the food
bowl and bed.
The Health Department says nobody should feed stray cats. Jack Wade,
staff sanitarian, said he understands that Hughes and others think
they're doing a good deed by feeding wandering cats.
Canton Health Commissioner Robert Pattison agrees. "Everybody wants to
help animals, but if you really want to help them, you want to give
(them) a real home."
(Jackie Godbey of the Humane Society in the following quote sounds more
like a dogcatcher than a humane society official)
Food dishes can attract raccoons, skunks and rats, he said. Food left
for cats also can lead to a colony of the four-legged creatures, said
Jackie Godbey, assistant director of the Stark County Humane Society.
Stray cats also may sit underneath cars or on top of vehicles. And
cats can spread respiratory disease, lice, fleas and worms to other
animals, Godbey said.
In the case of Hughes, Wade said he discovered the stray cats while
responding to a complaint about garbage and tires stored on another
property. That's when Wade said he noticed the cats, noting that the
department had received complaints about stray cats in the 10th Street
NW area.
Since Hughes said she "couldn't catch (the two stray cats) if I wanted
to," the only option is to remove the food bowl and bed and let them
fend for themselves.
The city and county health departments do not pick up strays. Neither
does the Stark County dog warden's office, which refers inquiries
about stray cats to the Stark County Humane Society.
The Humane Society accepts cats and puts them up for adoption, Godbey
said.
"They are the most important resource we have for cats," Wade said of
the agency.
People who have strays or want to get rid of a cat should not dump
them in rural parts of the county, Godbey said.
"They'll see a barn, a farm and they'll take (cats there), and they
don't think that 800 people have done that (in the same area) over the
years," she said.
Reach Repository writer Ed Balint at (330) 580-8315 or e-mail:
ed.balint@cantonrep.com
(As the Health Dept. violates the 1st amendment in
harrassment of Good Samaritans, it neglects investigation of
national chain and local restaurant incidents of food poisoning,
ecoli sickness, anaphylactic shock from old fish,
faulty freezers, porcine spongiform encephalopathy, avian spongiform
encephalopathy, cervine spongiform encephalopathy (Mad Pig, Mad Bird
Mad Deer etc.)
108 of Ohio's animal abusers
http://www.postpoems.com/cgi-bin/displaypoem.cgi?pid=209716
Quote:
the local health depts. in Ohio and the country
have killed trillions of rats
... have given cancer to untold tens of thousands with
their forced insecticide sprays
and their malathion and DDT etc.
they've given orders to bulldoze $100,000 brick homes (in league
with landlords who want rents high)
the directors are often unelected
they have ordered people to mow down wild lawns etc despite the
EPA's encouragement of wild lawns
http://www.epa.gov/greenacres